EAST GREENBUSH — Part-time town justice Diane L. Schilling has been ordered removed from the bench for fixing traffic tickets in a case that reveals the special treatment court officers get from traffic cops.

Schilling, a Democrat, was removed for fixing a ticket for the wife of a Sand Lake town justice and acting to make her own 2005 speeding ticket "disappear," the state Commission on Judicial Conduct said Thursday.

The commission also accuses Schilling, who resigned from her full-time job at the Office of Court Administration, of making court copies of the ticket disappear.

The investigation of Schilling stems from a May 30, 2009, traffic stop by town police Officer Brandon Boel, who gave a speeding ticket to Lisa C. Toomey, wife of Sand Lake Town Justice Paul Toomey. A copy was filed in East Greenbush Town Court.

Toomey had been driving her husband's car, which had SMA (State Magistrates Association) vanity plates affixed to the vehicle. Judges can use the plates on private vehicles. According to testimony during a commission hearing, police sometimes go easier on drivers operating cars with such plates.

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"Because Officer Boel had radioed the license plate number to the dispatcher, some officers at the station knew of the ticket issued to Ms. Toomey and were discussing the fact that the ticket had been issued to a car with a judge's license plate," the commission wrote in its findings. "Officer Boel, a relatively new officer at the time, had not known what 'SMA' signified."

According to the testimony from Schilling, she said she arrived at town court, which is near police headquarters, later that morning.

"Respondent testified that when she arrived at the police station, Officer Boel was being teased by other officers, for having issued a ticket to a car with an 'SMA' license plate," according to the commission's report.

Schilling quickly learned Lisa Toomey, whom she knew well, was ticketed, according to the commission. Schilling worked with Judge Toomey at OCA.

"Judge Schilling initiated a series of actions that led not only to the failure to prosecute the case but also to the disappearance of all copies of the Toomey ticket from court system and police files," the commission wrote. "The only remaining copy of the ticket was the one given to Ms. Toomey by the issuing officer," the report states. "Judge Schilling also knew from personal experience that a ticket could 'disappear' because she let that happen in 2005 to a speeding ticket she herself received from a trooper who later came to her office and took it back after learning she was a judge."

In June 2005, Schilling got a ticket from a New York state trooper while driving her car with "SMA" plates.

"Troopers told him (the trooper) that 'SMA' stands for State Magistrates Association and that he had given a ticket to a judge," the commission report states. The trooper then went to Schilling and took back the ticket and had it destroyed, the commission said.

"Ticket fixing strikes at the heart of our system of justice, which is based on equal treatment for all," the commission wrote. "As this commission stated more than 30 years ago, ticket fixing results in "two systems of justice, one for the average citizen and another for people with the right 'connections.'"

The commission and the referee who heard the case found no wrongdoing by Toomey, who had reported the incident to the commission in 2010. His wife, East Greenbush and State Police were also cleared. Schilling's attorney E. Stewart Jones said Schilling will appeal the decision to the state Court of Appeals.